This invention relates to communications networks and particularly the Internet. The invention includes an apparatus and method for publishing information to the Internet, and managing such publications to facilitate easy access by the intended recipients. The invention facilitates access to publications by enabling Internet users to subscribe to information which is published through the Internet.
The Internet comprises a network of computers interconnected by a separate communications network and using a common communications protocol. The common communications protocol and an arrangement for addressing resources or information stored or located on the network of computers provides what appears to Internet users to be seamless access to information published on the Internet virtually anywhere in the world. The interface to the Internet provided by the Worldwide Web has facilitated the development of easy-to-use browser applications which simplify Internet communications and has made the Internet available to anyone regardless of their technical knowledge.
The term "Internet" has come to be used to identify a particular network and the technology utilized by that network. However, unless otherwise noted, the term "Internet" is used in the remainder of this disclosure and the appended claims to describe the technology and networking topology employed by the particular network commonly referred to as the "Internet." Thus, the invention also has application to an "intranet", an instance of a local area network utilizing Internet technology, but which is not normally accessible by users other than those having access to the local area network.
The Internet and Worldwide Web (web) open up literally a world of information to anyone with a personal computer. Under the Worldwide Web interface, publishers or providers of information use a particular coding, Hypertext Mark-Up Language (HTML), for formatting information to be published to the web. The HTML based document or documents are stored in storage associated with an Internet or web server program operating on a computer having a constant connection to a communications system. These stored documents or files are accessible through a network wide addressing system using Universal Resource Locators (URLs) which identify a particular storage location or a particular related series of storage locations associated with a web server. URLs enable Internet users to download information which may be stored under any web server, regardless of where the web server is physically located.
Once information is published to an Internet location, it may be accessed by any Internet user having authorization to access the particular location. The user simply submits a URL, and the URL causes the identified web server, or host server to retrieve the information identified by the URL and transfer the information to the computer through which the URL was submitted. The information is transferred in a series of frames making up a web page which is displayed at the computer through which the URL was submitted. The information identifiable by a URL may actually comprise files stored at many different physical storage locations. The URL builds or defines an instruction to collect all of the related files and transfer the files to build a web page.
Commonly, users retrieve information using a graphical interface of a web browser program such as the NETSCAPE, NAVIGATOR and MICROSOFT EXPLORER web browser application programs. The HTML interface allows a document or web page identified under one Internet address or URL to include graphic links to other documents identified by other addresses. Once a first web page is loaded onto the user's computer, the user simply clicks on the graphic link to retrieve information stored at a URL address associated with the graphic link. Clicking on the graphic link causes the computer to submit the URL associated with the graphic link. This process of moving from one Internet published document or web page to the next using links embedded in the documents is commonly referred to as surfing the web.
The Internet and the Worldwide Web interface to the Internet has proven to be such a robust and convenient form of electronic communication that organizations have begun using the same technology for internal organization communications. A network utilizing Internet technology, but which is internal to an organization, such as a corporation or a governmental organization, is commonly referred to as an intranet.
Under Internet communications, published information must be located in some fashion by the user and then retrieved or down loaded to the user's location. The common method of locating Internet published information by surfing from one location to the next until a desired location is reached is time consuming and tedious. Although the Internet is highly successful at generally enabling information to be communicated, the system is very poor at organizing the information in a coherent fashion. The Internet includes no mechanism for alerting a user when important information is published or even simply facilitating access to information when it is published.
Another problem involves publishing information to the Internet through the Worldwide Web interface. Information which may need to be published may be created using a variety of software products including word processors, spread sheets, and graphics programs. In each case, the format of a particular document must be converted to a web viewable or readable format. That is, a format in which the document may be displayed at a user's terminal. Manually converting documents for Internet publication has heretofore been time consuming and has required specialized programs and knowledge.
The problems with the Internet do not end with the problems associated with publishing to the Internet and retrieving information from the Internet, that is, getting documents to the system, and then to the intended recipients. Internet communications pose significant information management difficulties. For example, prior to the present invention, Internet publishers had to maintain constant vigilance to ensure that publications are kept current and outdated publications are removed.